Real World Gardener is produced in the studios of 2RRR 88.5fm Sydney, N.S.W. and heard across Australia on the Community Radio Network. A gardening show with up to date, informative topics about sustainable gardening, plants, wildlife and the environment.
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A Whole Lot of Galahs

The complete CRN
edition of RWG is available on http://www.cpod.org.au/ , just click on 2RRR to find this week’s edition. The new theme is sung by Harry Hughes from his album
Songs of the Garden. You can hear samples of the album from the website www.songsofthegarden.com

WILDLIFE IN FOCUS

with ecologist Sue StevensYou might recall that in days gone
by, anybody who was driving badly, or being silly, was often called a'galah'.

Then, most human galahs are young.
If their galah habits persist, they may graduate, and become dills, or nongs.These parrots are easy to spot and
you would think they like to hang in large groups, but this fascinating parrot
is often misunderstood and under-estimated. The Australian galah is not only
intelligent but also a loving social animal that mates for life.Let's find out more about them...

Did you know that Americans pay
$1000 for a Galah on the illegal market and many Australians keep galahs as
pets because they just love their antics?But for Australian farmers they
can’t get rid of this grain-destroying bird fast enough. Another fact you mightn’t have heard
of is that Galahs weren’t all that common before British settlement. But now,
because of all the grain growing, their numbers of increased dramatically.Sadly, Galahs aren’t protected in
most states of Australia because of their love of eating grains. If you have any questions about Galahs
why don’t you drop us a line to realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR P.O. Box 644 Gladesville
NSW 1675.

VEGETABLE HEROES

Well it’s TIME FOR VEGETABLE HEROES

Asparagus or Asparagus officinalis
from the Liliaceae or lily Family.

Asparagus is a perennial plant that
is native to the eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor areas. The name
“asparagus” comes from the Greek language meaning “sprout” or “shoot. It’s been
around for at least 2,000 years.

Did you know that Asparagus is often
called the “Food of Kings”

Because King Louis XIV of France loved
them so much that he ordered special greenhouses built so he could enjoy
asparagus all year-round?

According to some, Asparagus is
considered an Aphrodisiac, possibly because of its shape more than any other
reason.

There have been asparagus recipes
found in Arabian love manuals as far back as the 16th century, and
experts say you need to it over three consecutive days to get the full effect.
Heh Heh.

Asparagus was so highly regarded in
England that the thought of setting up a colony in Australia without asparagus
was unthinkable, so seed was included in the list of vegetables carried by
Sirius, one of the ships of the First Fleet.

If you look in old seed catalogues
that date back as far as the 19th century you’ll find that Asparagus was
popular with Australians even back then.

What is Asparagus exactly?

The plant has a crown that is
actually an underground stem from which asparagus spears shoots

The roots are called rhizomes
(pronounced rye-zomes).

On top of these rhizomes grow
spears, which are tender and succulent to eat, are slightly glossy, about
18-25cm long and 1.5-2cm wide, with many small, bumpy, triangular scales
(called bracts) concentrated in the top quarter of the stem.

Some gardener might be thinking where
can I buy Asparagus to grow?

In fact, do I buy seed, or tubers or
what?

I’m here to tell you all that.

You can in fact buy Asparagus seed,
including Purple Asparagus seed from online companies such as Green Harvest or diggers seeds. www.diggers.com.auBut now’s the time to buy something
called Asparagus Crowns, and you can buy these from just about anywhere even some
supermarkets.

I saw some this week in a supermarket,
they were the Mary Washington variety.

You can buy the Crowns online or
from mail order catalogs as well

WHEN TO PLANT

In temperate and sub-tropical districts, plant Asparagus crowns from August right through to November.

In cool temperate zones, you have from September until November, and unfortunately for arid zones, you had June, July, and will now have to wait until January.

Asparagus is a perennial so if you haven’t a perennial veggie patch find somewhere else in the garden, maybe near those rhubarb crowns, because the crowns last for many years, and need to be left in the one spot. Normally, your veggie patch gets a makeover every 6 months or so, -not that good for the crowns of these plants.

So find a sunny spot in the garden where you don’t mind some veggies growing there year after year.

Preferably with soil that’s been given some Dolomite and heaps and heaps of compost and complete plant food.

To plant, dig out a shallow trench 30cm wide and 20cm deep. Incorporate well-rotted manure to the base of the trench and cover the base with a 5cm layer of excavated soil. Be sure to buy fresh crowns, as they often dry out while on display.

Place the crowns onto a small mound in the centre of the furrow, so that the roots point down at about 45°, spread the roots out carefully. Backfill with compost to a depth of 7.5 cm.

In spring Asparagus will grow long and slender with soft fernlike foliage.Don’t cut any spears in the first Spring, because this is when the crowns are developing.

Spring is also the time you need to add 100g per sq m of fertiliser like fish meal or blood and bone.

Then top with a thick hay mulch.

Asparagus produces both male and
female plants shoots as male plants.

Modern cultivars are all male, as
male plants produce more and better spears. If you have any Female plants,
which have berries, pull these outbecause
the red berries are poisonous and don’t produce as many edible spears.

During Autumn and Winter the tops
will go yellow and brown off, cut off the old tops about 7.5 cm from the soil
surface.

Frost damage causes distorted or
dead spears, often some time afterwards if the tips are just below soil level.

Straw mulch or fleece can hold off light
frosts.

PICKING THAT ASPARAGUS

Don’t cut any spears for the first
two years after planting. In the third year, gather spears for the first month
of the growing season, but in following years, if the plants are strong, cut
for eight weeks.

Slice off spears with a sharp knife
just below the soil before they exceed 18cm tall. In warm weather, this may
mean cutting every few days.

Don’t cut any more after late
December so that plants have enough time to build up their growth reserves for
winter.

In the following years, mulch the
beds thickly with compost and manure in late winter.Remember patience in the early stages will
help to get a life span of 15 years or even longer for your asparagus.

Spears are harvested in two ways which gives them a different colour.
White asparagus is grown below the ground and not exposed to light. When
harvested it is cut below the surface before being lifted out of the soil. If
spears are allowed grow in sunlight they turn a green colour.

For green, only hill about 10cm (4”) and allow the spear to grow 15cm
(6”) above the soil, making sure to cut the spear just below ground level.Green asparagus is recommended.

Asparagus is most delicious when the
time between cutting and serving is kept to a minimum.

When you’re cutting the spears, do
it carefully to avoid injuring the crown.

Farmers harvest by a rule-of-thumb,
if the spears are thicker than a pencil cut them before the spears branch,
usually at approx. 20 cm high, if they are skinnier, leave them to develop and
feed the crown.

Why Is It Good For You?

Asparagus has a great flavour and is
Asparagus is low in kilojoules,
without fat or cholesterol, while providing fibre. That makes it a must for any
diet, including a weight loss diet.

Asparagus contains B group vitamins and a serve of asparagus has ¼ of your
RDI of vitamin C .AND THAT WAS OUR VEGETABLE HERO
SEGMENT for today

DESIGN ELEMENTS

with Landscape Designer Jason Cornish

Last week, we started part 1 of pool
conversions and what was involved.

We discussed why Swimming pools get
a bad rap in enviro-circles-they cost a great deal to build, waste huge amounts
of water and energy for maintenance, use chemicals to keep them clear and
‘safe’, and they take up a lot of space. Many people also just find them a lot
of work to look after, which is especially annoying when they use them only for
a couple of months of the year at best.

But, what if you’re already lumbered
with a pool and are trying to make the best of the situation? Maybe it came
with your property, or hindsight has kicked in after you’ve shelled out
thousands to install something you almost never use…. What then?

Today we’re looking at what will
actually happen to the pool itself, and allay your worries about insect pests
that might come about from doing this type of pool conversion.

Let’s find out what this is all
about.

Something to think about if you don’t want that pool anymore.

Simply draining the pool isn’t the answer either, because the pool
interior will still require periodic sweeping and cleaning if you want to avoid
raised eyebrows from your mother-in-law and other guests.

Pool conversions are more practical than just filling in the hole
and you have something aesthetic too.

PLANT OF THE WEEK

STONE PINE Pinus pineaNuts are quite expensive to buy so a nut tree of some kind should probably be in most people’s backyard along with the ubiquitous lemon tree.

Seems like it’s not the case though and I’m not sure why.

Nut trees are as easy or as hard to grow as lemon trees-depending on your take on growing productive trees.

If anything, lemon trees have more than their fair share of problems.

Today, this particular nut tree has been around for thousands of years

Do you love cooking with pine nuts? Or would you use
pine nuts more if they weren’t so expensive?

Well now you can grow your own and in fact they come
from a pine tree.

If you haven’t tried pine nuts, these ones only come
from the one tree, not just any pine.

Stone pine is an attractive large pine tree that bears
cones of edible nuts considered a delicacy.

A stately, rugged pine with distinctively domed canopy
or some say a distinctive umbrella shape and clear trunk. Provides dense but
well delineated shade.

This is the tough, elegant umbrella-shaped pine,
producing delicious pine nuts perfect for pesto and muesli. We offer the
variety 'Walker', selected after rigorous trialing by Western Australian
agricultural research stations.

Trees can be expected to start producing cones from
about year 6. Each cone holds about 50 nuts and 100 kg of cones holds about 20
kg of nuts.

Pinus pinea or Stone pine certainly
will make a statement in any garden, plus you have the added benefit of those
nuts in every pine cone,

People of the Mediterranean region
have been eating the nuts of Pinus pinea (also called pignolia) for thousands
of years — there is evidence that pignolia were eaten and used to make wine in
ancient Rome.